Wood You Believe?: Moving

Hello family and dear friends... whoever still reads this. Sorry I am so awful about writing updates, but it is your lucky day b/c I have some time and a wild hair to write a post!

We've been doing a lot of "moving" lately. Last week, Rachel moved out of our house to rent a room in someone else's house. She's about 12 minutes away from us in the town of Stallings, living with a woman named Pearl whom she met on a retreat/conference she did with the nuns. She's doing all right. Keep her in your prayers... figuring out the right balance of medication is a journey. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing that.

Since Rachel moved out, the boys have been able to move in - to their bedroom that Rachel was occupying. I transferred all their clothing to their new room. I moved Sammy's clothes out of my room and into the room he is sharing with Clara. Now I just have the baby's clothes left to move into the cupboard set aside for that, which was previously occupied by Joseph's clothes.

All four children were sharing the same room for the past many months. It was Joseph, Simon and Clara together ever since Rachel moved in. A couple of months ago, Sammy decided on his own that he wanted to sleep in there too, so he transitioned out of our bedroom into theirs. Simon graciously gave up his spot in the bed and opted to sleep on the floor. He was finally tiring of sleeping on the floor, so the move to his new bedroom comes at a good time.

I am preparing my nest and feeling pretty good. I'm feeling ready to welcome this baby in a couple of weeks or so (probably less.)

Last weekend was the Second Annual Mothering With Grace Mothers' Conference that my friend Jessica and I planned. It seems by all accounts to have been a success. We've had many people tell us they had a positive experience and things went pretty smoothly. We were blessed in so many ways and definitely surrounded by God's grace. Mary, our Blessed Mother attended to many little details that we prayed for, for which we are very grateful. We had 120 women register, 10 vendors selling their wares, and "swag bags" worth over $60 or $65 for the first 100 registrants (more than the cost of admission!), which were completely donated out of the generosity of several businesses and individuals ... As for a conference next year? We don't know yet. We agreed at the outset of planning this one that we would take it one year at a time and that we should never feel obligated to put on the conference just because we did it before. We are mothers first and foremost, and our families must come first, so we just have to evaluate that each time. Jessica is pregnant too, so we would both have babies next year - A caveat that would certainly have to be dealt with before we could commit to planning for 2016.

Our regular meeting-based ministry continues to carry on. I co-lead a group at my parish; Jessica co-leads a group at hers, and there are a few others in the Charlotte area and in a few other states, even Canada. With David's help, we registered our name with the Patent Trademark Office. That was an exciting milestone!

Sammy is in preschool this year. It's almost in our neighborhood, so that it nice and convenient. Clara, Simon and Joseph are all taking French class (one of the reasons I needed Sammy to be in preschool!), as well as Faith Formation classes at the parish. Simon will be receiving his First Holy Communion this coming spring. April 30 is the scheduled date.

Now some pictures to round out the update!